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Published Thursday, August 6, 2020
Lufthansa Airline resumes weekly
flights to Costa Rica
The German airlines Lufthansa will continue to offer weekly commercial trips from Germany to Costa Rica. The announcement comes after a successful first Lufthansa Airlines flight to the Central American country post-border closures.
On Aug. 1, the country reopened their international airport to selected international commercial flights.
According to Aeris, the company in charge of the administration of the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) in Alajuela Province, the first flight LH518, arrived yesterday, Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. from Frankfurt Main Airport (FRA) with 218 passengers and 24 crew members. The A340 plane will be leaving today at 7:55 p.m. back to Germany.
In order for tourists to enter the country, the Ministry of Health established the following mandatory requirements:
• Confirm a negative covid-19 test taken within the past 48 hours before the trip.
• Complete the digital epidemiological form of Social Security. This application will be available in different languages.
• Provide proof of travel insurance that covers quarantine and medical expenses in case of illness.
According to Lufthansa, in an initial phase, from August to October, two weekly flights will be offered. On Wednesday's flight LH518, will take off at 2 p.m. from (FRA) Germany arriving in (SJO) Costa Rica at 4:10 p.m. local time. On Saturdays, flight LH519 will take off from Costa Rica at 7:55 p.m. arriving in Germany at 13:20 p.m.
Although Costa Rica opened their borders to Germany, travel to the European country is not allowed for Costa Ricans yet.
"The return of our operation to San José is undoubtedly a great vote of confidence and leadership," said Daniel Serrano, Lufthansa manager for Central America and the Caribbean. "We highlight the early measures taken in the region in favor of the resumption of tourism, we are sure that with the support and constant evaluation of the measures necessary by the government and, in coordination with the tourist actors, we now have a safe operation that will generate confidence in passengers and citizens."
More flight information can be reached at the Lufthansa web page.
This is the second flight to arrive in the country since the opening of aerial borders on Aug. 1.
The first flight with foreign tourists arrived at 7:00 p.m. yesterday. The Iberia Airline flight arrived from Madrid, Spain, with 211 passengers, announced Aeris.
The General Directorate of Migration announced that only commercial flights with passengers from the European Union affiliated to the Schengen zone treaty, the United Kingdom and Canada are being authorized to enter the country pending new requirements.
The Schengen Area, named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement signed in Schengen, Luxembourg, is an area comprising 26 European countries that have officially abolished all passports and all other types of border control at their mutual borders.
The 26 Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
However, the European Union Council announced that the ban on Costa Rica travelers remains. The list of countries allowed to exchange international flights can be found at the following link of the European Union Council website.
In March, the government declared a national state of emergency due to the covid-19 crisis and ordered the closure of all borders, including maritime, land and air. The decree allowed only Costa Ricans and foreign residents to enter the country.
The reopening of Costa Rica international airports does not allow flights from any airport in the United States or Latin America.
This week, due to the exclusion of flights from the United States, the Costa Rican-American Chamber of Commerce, AmCham, requested the government to allow for the arrival of commercial flights from the northern country.
According to AmCham, in 2019 more than 1,300,000 U.S. citizens visited Costa Rica, which could be equivalent to a quarter of the total of tourists that arrived in the country last year.
The ban on commercial flight arrivals from the U.S. limits the arrival of tourists to Costa Rica, AmCham said. With more flights, a higher number of tourists will enter the country to reactivate the tourism sector affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
"Most of the airlines that fly to Costa Rica come from the U.S. and provide the highest frequency of direct flights. Historically, U.S. citizens are the largest group of tourists, so it is illogical to exclude them," said Gisela Sánchez, AmCham president. "We believe that by applying the same regulation proposed for other countries, flights should be able to reach our country. "
AmCham's proposal is under equal conditions, U.S. citizens can present, before their flight, the negative result of their covid-19 test (PCR) and complete the digital epidemiological form of Social Security.
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